Best Practices in email marketing for engagement
Email marketing, since its birth in the 1980s, continues to be one of the most effective tools a brand can use to connect with the public. To achieve optimal engagement results, however, it is essential to understand and adopt best practices – best practices that reflect emerging trends and changes in consumer behavior.
So let’s see what the guidelines are for increasing engagement through email marketing.
Advanced customization
Personalization cannot be ignored in best practices for engagement. This, however, can no longer be limited to inserting the recipient’s name in the subject. In fact, with the advent of Big Data and Data Analysis, it is possible, and recommended, to use behavioral data, purchase histories and personal preferences to create highly customized content. You will need to segment your audience based on specific interests and demographics and send emails tailored to each segment. In this way, the customer will receive more value and, consequently, engagement will increase.
There are platforms, for example SalesForce, which allow you to integrate CRM and email marketing, thus allowing you to track, record and analyze customer behavior and therefore send the most relevant content based on the data collected. For example, if a customer has purchased a specific product, emails suggesting complementary accessories will be effective.
Intelligent automation
Automation, thanks also to the progress made in the field of artificial intelligence, is increasingly crucial for creating engagement through email marketing, and for this reason we fully include it in the best practices. It is important, however, to go beyond simple automatic responses. The campaigns themselves will be automated, based on specific triggers and detected behaviors, for example abandonment of the cart or navigation on specific pages, in order to send timely and relevant emails. Mailchimp, a famous email marketing platform, offers for example automation procedures that allow you to automatically send an email to customers who abandon their cart, including a reminder or a discount.
Interactive Content
At this point, we widely know that interactive elements greatly increase engagement. Surveys, quizzes, interactive carts, etc., included directly in the body of the email, improve the user experience without the customer having to leave the email application. For example, the use of GIFs, image carousels and call to action buttons that act directly within the email, making the email more dynamic and engaging, is emerging as a trend.
Mobile optimization
It seems strange to have to repeat it, in 2024, but it still doesn’t seem to be clear to everyone how important mobile optimization is. Nowadays almost everyone reads emails directly from their smartphone. For this reason, email messages must be responsive, with a design optimized for the very small screen and with simple to click CTAs that do not require too long loading times. It is empirically proven that a design optimized for the specific device increases the chances of interaction and conversion.
Ethical use of data and privacy
In 2024, it is impossible to avoid including the ethical use of data among the best practices for engagement in email marketing. Not only are regulations increasingly specific and careful, but user awareness is increasingly high, and companies must therefore ensure they use data transparently and respect public preferences. it is essential, for example, to implement simple opt-in and opt-out procedures, as well as setting preferences for the frequency and type of emails you receive. Otherwise, trust will decrease and, instead, the risk of ending up in the Spam folder will increase.
Storytelling
We can’t consider any longer Email marketing as just a mean of selling. In fact, if you want to create engagement and build a lasting relationship, you will need to place greater emphasis on storytelling and long-term return on investment. The brand must offer value and tell the public about itself as if it were inside a story. A strategy that many brands have been using recently is to create series of emails that follow a narrative thread, for example telling the story behind the creation of a product or the team’s typical day. For these purposes it is also important to identify the archetype of your brand,
Conclusions
We have seen the best practices for increasing engagement through email marketing. It is important to always remember, however, that one has to customize each strategy basing it on the company that uses it. Clearly, an e-commerce, an online bank and a non-profit association will have to use email marketing differently. What really makes the difference is the prior clarification of the objectives of a campaign, so that one can adjust it accordingly and not make gross mistakes that waste time and money.